By Lindsey Bever
The Washington Post
If you’re like a lot of people, you probably fall short of the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep each night — maybe because of a sleep disorder, anxiety and stress, too much caffeine or distractions from your laptop or phone.
Even if you’ve tried to address all of these issues, you might still find it hard to get some shut-eye.
Here are some tips we have collected from sleep experts and evolving sleep research to help you get a better night’s rest.:
1. Eat a healthy diet
While chamomile tea, warm milk and turkey sandwiches have a reputation as sleep-inducing snacks, “it’s more beneficial to focus on whole dietary pattern changes rather than trying to focus on one magic food,” said Erica Jansen, assistant professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.
Certain diets can have a positive effect on sleep quality and duration, research shows. Specifically, plant-rich diets may help promote better sleep.
Fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, fish, eggs and milk, for instance, contain melatonin, a hormone produced by our bodies that regulates our sleep-wake cycles and tells us when to sleep.
Turkey, chicken, fish, cheese, egg whites, nuts, seeds and dairy are high in tryptophan, an amino acid that can be converted into melatonin in the body. And because our bodies are unable to create it, we must obtain it directly from foods, said Marie-Pierre St-Onge, a professor of nutritional medicine and director of the Center of Excellence for Sleep and Circadian Research at Columbia University.
It’s also important to avoid foods and beverages known to hinder sleep, such as those containing caffeine, alcohol or high amounts of sugar, or those that are ultra-processed, research shows.
2. Try fall-asleep-faster breathing exercises
Some studies suggest that breathing techniques can help facilitate sleep by slowing your heart rate, lowering your blood pressure and reducing anxiety.
One technique is called the 4-7-8 breathing method, which Washington Post nutrition columnist Anahad O’Connor has used personally. As he reported, first, inhale through your nose for four seconds. Then, hold your breath for seven seconds. Finally, exhale through your mouth for eight seconds. Repeat as many times as needed.
When you wake up in the middle of the night and your mind begins to wander, your sympathetic nervous system, which controls your fight-or-flight response, can become activated, making you feel alert and anxious. Breathing exercises can help you calm down by activating your parasympathetic nervous system — the “rest-and-digest system” — which relaxes your muscles and slows your heart rate, said Michael Breus, a sleep doctor and clinical psychologist who wrote the book “Sleep Drink Breathe.”
Some studies suggest that breathing techniques can help facilitate sleep by slowing your heart rate, lowering your blood pressure and reducing anxiety. (Photo courtesy of Metro Editorial Services)
3. Use cognitive shuffling
Cognitive shuffling, a technique intended to mimic the “dreamlike” thinking that happens naturally as you’re dozing off, may help trick the brain into falling asleep, said Luc Beaudoin, a cognitive scientist and adjunct professor at Simon Fraser University in Canada who developed the technique.
Simply think of a word that is neutral or positive, such as the word “house.” Then, think of words that start with the first letter: horse, harmonica, honey. Try to picture each object or idea for five to 15 seconds, maybe even imagining a scene with yourself in it: You’re riding a horse. You’re playing the harmonica. You’re harvesting honey.
Beaudoin and a team of researchers found that cognitive shuffling was as effective at helping people fall asleep as journaling before bedtime and had the added advantage of being something you can do easily in the middle of the night.
Experts often recommend seven to nine hours of sleep each night. (Photo courtesy of Metro Editorial Services)
4. Wear socks to bed
Most of us tend to sleep better when we are cooler, cozied up in a dark, cool room. And while it may sound confusing, wearing socks is one way to keep your body cooler while sleeping, experts said.
While there are limited high-quality studies on it, there is a well-accepted theoretical explanation:
“When we warm up our feet by wearing socks, the blood vessels under the skin dilate not just in the feet, but everywhere,” said Indira Gurubhagavatula, a spokeswoman for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and a professor of medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. “This vasodilation allows warm blood to come to the surface, and as it keeps circulating and coming to the skin, body heat is shed, and core body temperature eventually drops.”
“It is the drop in core temperature that signals the brain to get ready for sleep,” she added.
If you prefer to sleep barefoot, you could try a warm bath or shower, or a small amount of a nonalcoholic, noncaffeinated warm beverage before bedtime. These can help promote better sleep in a similar way as wearing socks does, experts said.
Wearing socks to bed is one way to keep your body cooler while sleeping. By warming the feet, blood vessels under the skin dilate, letting warm blood reach the surface, causing body temperature to drop. That’s what signals the brain to get ready for sleep. Just be sure not to offset the gain and remember to drink only nonalcoholic, noncaffeinated warm beverages before bed. (Photo courtesy of Metro Editorial Services)
5. Use a fan
Fans are another way to keep cool while you sleep, with at least one added benefit — white noise.
Fans cool you by displacing warmer air and helping to evaporate sweat from your skin, a concept known as the wind chill effect. Ceiling fans and oscillating fans are the best types of fans for this, experts said.
If you want a fan that helps block out the world around you, however, box fans can “mask some of the lower-level fluctuations in background noise so that you’re not alerted to those signals,” said Norah Simpson, a clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and associate director of the Sleep Health and Insomnia Program at Stanford Medicine.
6. Understand marijuana as a sleep aid
Research on cannabis and sleep remains somewhat inconclusive, but some components of the cannabis plant “appear to be helpful for some people with regard to sleep,” said Staci Gruber, director of the Marijuana Investigations for Neuroscientific Discovery Program at McLean Hospital and an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
These compounds include cannabidiol (CBD), which does not cause the “high” that we typically associate with marijuana, and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which does have those mood- and mind-altering effects. Products that consist primarily of CBD, along with low doses of THC, may help some people fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer, Gruber said.
If you plan to try it, note that the delivery system matters. While capsules, beverages and edibles, including gummies, can take longer to work than oils and solutions placed under the tongue, the effects last longer. (Research shows that smoking and vaping can cause damage to your lungs, among other things.)
Also, keep in mind that higher amounts of THC (often found in products used for recreational purposes) can cause alertness and anxiety, and, when taken for weeks or months, may start to hinder sleep as the brain potentially starts habituating to the sedating effects, said Deirdre Conroy, clinical director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Clinic at Michigan Medicine.
Research on cannabis and sleep remains somewhat inconclusive, but some components of the cannabis plant appear to be helpful for some people’s sleep. Cannabidiol (CBD), which does not cause the “high” typically associated with marijuana, and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which does have those mood- and mind-altering effects, are two being looked at. Products that consist primarily of CBD, along with low doses of THC, may help some people fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer. (Photo courtesy of Metro Editorial Services)